At The Blood's Perimeter
by Mark of the Asphodel
Summary: Two decades into the reign of Emperor Celice, a cryptic message from the Queen of Thracia foretells a new wave of chaos to fall upon the continent.  Can an aging warrior and a lonely queen avert disaster?  NOT Oifey/Nanna romance.
1. Messenger

**At The Blood's Perimeter**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

A post-FE4 story. Features a galaxy of Gen 1 and Gen 2 pairings, both "onscreen" and offscreen, some within the bounds of canon (Celice/Rana, Oifey/Fee) and some... not. Explanations to follow. If you feel so strongly about FE4/5 pairings that an undesirable coupling makes you ragequit a story, you _might_ not like this one.

Then again, you might.

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><p><em>Chapter One: Messenger<em>

_Chalpy, Gran Year 801_

The imminent arrival of their guest sent Lady Fee into a tizzy; her pleasant voice turned sharp and childish, strands of her short hair floated every-which-way, and even her earrings seemed off-kilter as she rushed about the estate making preparations.

"Calm down, Fee," said Chalphy's lord as he watched his wife's fluttering antics. "You act as though Thracia were sending an army after us instead of a diplomatic party."

"That's not funny, Oifey."

"No? Well, it wouldn't be if we were facing Thracia's army. But I can assure you we're not." _This time_, he mentally added.

"Oh, I guess we aren't," she admitted. "But why did King Leaf have to send _Fenian_?"

"He can fly."

Certainly it was more efficient for the Thracian ruler to send over his nephew on dragon-back, rather than his niece in the company of her Lanz Ritter. But Fee still had a pegasus rider's distrust of dragon knights, and truth be told, Oifey wasn't too fond of the idea either. Given the choice, he'd readily welcome Princess Oona and the entire Lanz Ritter over Prince Fenian and even a handful of the dragon knights.

Fenian only brought three of his knights along; Oifey and Fee saw their dark shapes on the horizon shortly after the sun began its afternoon descent. Three knights, Oifey reminded himself, was but a tenth of what was needed to overtake a kingdom. Not that Thracia was in that business anymore, not under King Leaf's rule. But no amount of rational thought could entirely quell the tension one felt on seeing those great green beasts with their vicious claws and lethal whip-tails.

Fenian and his men brought the dragons down at a respectful distance from their hosts; Oifey watched as the Thracian prince leaped down to the ground. A tall, slim youth of eighteen years, Fenian lacked the flamboyance of the dragon knights of an earlier age; his azure hair reached only to his collar. Unconsciously, Oifey's eyes drifted from his approaching visitor to the formidable lance strapped to the side of Fenian's dragon.

_Forty-four years. What a terrible string of events brings us all to this moment._

"Welcome again to Chalphy, Prince Fenian," Oifey said aloud, with a warmth to his voice that masked his inner feelings.

"My lord, I bring you greetings from the court of Thracia. His Majesty sends his fondest regards to you and Lady Fee."

Oifey studied the top of the youth's bowed head as Fenian spoke; something in the prince's voice again sent Oifey back four decades. Then Fenian glanced up, and Oifey looked into the brown eyes of the holy line of Nova.

_His eyes are almost like Lord Cuan's... but with no warmth to them at all._

But now Fee descended upon the prince in a flurry of hospitality, even kissing Fenian on the cheek as though he were a well-loved kinsman coming home. Oifey withheld all his questions as he let his wife handle their guest and his attendants. Whatever message Fenian brought to them, it could wait a few hours.

-x-

Fee had arranged for an intimate "family" dinner, without Fenian's men or any of Chalphy's own knights present. With the heir of their house off at the Academy in Barhara and their daughter visiting Silesia, only the three of them were present at the table. Fenian had dispensed with his armor and wore the severe dress popularized by Thracia's Great General- a black tunic edged in broad bands of white, relieved only a little by a deep-blue mantle. This ensemble only emphasized the cold look of the prince's natural coloring. Fee tried to set the boy at ease with a friendly stream of questions about his uncle, aunt, cousin, mother, and sister, but Oifey didn't think he was imagining the chilly defensive aura around Fenian, and so Oifey was relieved to get down to the essential business of this visit.

Fenian's own shoulders seemed to rise in a visible expression of relief as he related his story.

"Her Majesty the Queen has experienced visions foretelling a great calamity, one that will shake the foundations of the Empire. King Leaf, mindful of the kinship between our house and that of Chalphy, wished to warn you."

"Warn me of what?" Oifey replied to this bizarre message. "Floods, fires, earthquakes? Of what manner is this... catastrophe?"

"Rebellion, my lord. A new inheritor of the light will rise from Verdane and strike at the peace and security we all enjoy under Emperor Celice."

"Inheritor of the light," repeated Oifey. "Is this another heir of Narga?"

_They all should have been identified by this point... unless Lady Linoan of Tahra has borne a child in secret and smuggled it away to Verdane. _

"I cannot say. I've repeated the message exactly as Her Majesty related it to me."

Oifey mulled this over in silence for a few moments. Linoan seemed the most likely source of any strife, he thought; she had deep ties to those foci for trouble that called themselves the line of Dain. But why Verdane?

"And what do you think of this prophecy, Prince Fenian?"

The boy's dark eyes widened just a little.

"Her Majesty's visions are not to be discounted, my lord. Those who ignore them... appear to do so at their own peril."

_He truly might be ice on the inside_.

"We thank you for this warning, Prince Fenian, but without more to go on, I can't at present imagine how we can head this threat off."

"I am sorry, my lord. I can only assure you that if His Majesty did not believe the news worthwhile, he would not have sent me."

-x-

"But how can any inheritor of _light_ be against Emperor Celice?" asked Fee once they'd retired for the night. "What good would come of shaking up the Empire?"

"I can't imagine, Fee."

"Right! It doesn't make sense. And why are we paying attention to anything the Queen of Thracia says anyway? She's _his_ granddaughter."

"Fenian had a point in that Queen Sara's premonitions have startling accuracy."

"Oh, _she_ didn't predict that incident with the Gae Bolg, not really. The curse on that thing is older than dirt. I can't imagine how Princess Oona can even bear to touch it."

"I can't either, Fee." Nor did Oifey really want to think about it. "It does seem, though, that certain of us... can't fully escape the chains of the past. That the same tragedy does play out again, and again, with only brief interruptions. Perhaps this 'inheritor of light' will be another such case..."

"You know what doing the same bad thing over and over again is called? Crazy, that's what. And the Thracians are _crazy_. King Leaf for marrying that Sara girl, Princess Altenna for doing what she did... and I think the boy is as crazy as the rest of them."

"He's so much like his father that it hurts," Oifey muttered.

"_Crazy_," Fee repeated. "All of them."

**To be continued...**

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><p>Yeah. So, this is meant (in part) to catch up and deploy a whole slew of Jugdral headcanon bits- kind of like gathering up butterflies and then pinning them. And hopefully to have a bit of fun along the way. In the epic, continent-destroying sense of the word "fun," naturally. :D<p>

Right, so one chapter in and we're already dealing not just with Oifey/Fee (_it's not crack_!) but with Leaf/Sara (yes, Manfroy's granddaughter) and some Finn/Altenna offspring. And it just might get weirder from here. Stay tuned.


	2. Mistakes

**At The Blood's Perimeter**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

Where we left off, Prince Fenian of Thracia (Leaf's nephew) showed up in Chalphy with a warning for Oifey (and Fee!) that Bad Stuff was coming down in the near future. Now what?

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><p><em>Chapter Two: Mistakes<em>

Fee wanted to show the Thracian prince some Grandbellian hospitality- a hunt, a ball, something to show off Chalphy's best side to the foreign visitors. Something to recall the happy times when Prince Cuan had come to Chalphy to woo young Lady Ethlin. Fee played the "days of your grandparents" card with flair, but- as Oifey fully expected- young Fenian had other plans.

"My men and I are needed in Thracia, Lady Fee. King Leaf relies on me to watch over the south."

"And yet, he sent you on so long a journey for the sake of Queen Sara's message," said Oifey.

Fenian didn't immediately respond, and Oifey adopted a tone he hoped was _subtly_ persuasive. Avuncular, even.

"Prince Fenian, if King Leaf truly believes the urgency of this... message... why don't you bring it to the attention of Agustria?"

"That's right, Fenian. They're your family, too," Fee chimed in.

"I came to see you at King Leaf's command. What goes on in Agustria is no concern of mine."

The boy's expression didn't change, but Oifey noticed the abrupt lack of inflection in Fenian's voice. Rather than concealing his feelings, it made obvious that Fenian was ruffled by Fee's comment. Oifey saw the opening and exploited it.

"Prince Fenian, please take this not as request from a lord of Grandbell, but as a favor asked by someone who served with your father for many years. If the message is as grave as you claim, warn Agustria."

Oifey knew that he'd won in the moment he saw Fenian look at down at the carpet.

_These gray hairs of mine are worth something, _Oifey thought. He didn't allow himself to smile at this little victory over a child, but he felt the warmth of Fee's satisfaction radiating from behind his shoulder.

-x-

Verdane.

It kept Oifey up well into the night.

_Verdane._

The poisoned heel of Celice's empire. A wilderness beyond the reach of imperial law, its central lake formed by Deirdre's tears for her homeland. The emperor's attempts to integrate the western kingdom into Grandbell never met with _resistance_ from the people who welcomed Celice as the son of the Holy Maiden, yet the instant Celice would turn his attention elsewhere, chaos swept again across the land. Verdane had seen three cycles of peace and unrest already since Celice claimed the throne.

"What would be in Verdane, Fee?"

Oifey had the answer- the obvious, ominous answer- but he hoped his wife might be able to come at the problem from a different angle.

"Beats me," she said as she pulled at a strand of his hair. "Bandits. That's all Verdane's been my whole lifetime. Bandits and strange holy people living in the woods."

The Spirit Forest. Oifey stifled a sigh. An "inheritor of the light" coming out of the sacred woods where the descendants of Saint Maira lived in secrecy. If that was the import of Queen Sara's message, then King Leaf was right to send out his nephew to spread the word.

There shouldn't have _been _any more descendants of Maira's line lurking in the forest, but stranger things were certainly possible. Leaf taking the granddaughter of _Manfroy_ as a wife was stranger than anything Oifey might have invented.

"I think she's making it up," said Fee as she turned over onto her stomach.

"Queen Sara? Why would she invent a story for Fenian to spread around the continent? That really doesn't make sense to me, Fee."

"It makes sense if Thracia is trying to stir up trouble," she said, unfazed by his lack of belief.

"And why would Thracia... why would King Leaf do that? He has everything he could possibly want- and he's paid dearly for all of it."

"Maybe it's _her_."

"We can't assume Queen Sara is tainted by the actions of her grandfather any more than Saint Maira himself was corrupted by the acts of his brother. Which is to say, he wasn't."

"I don't know, Oifey." She rolled against him now, her body pressed to his shoulder. "I don't want another war, and now I'm thinking there's going to be one, and I don't know _why_. You've said for years that Sir Sigurd couldn't see the dangers in front of him because no good man could possibly take all the pieces and put together what Manfroy was actually planning. What's this thing _now _that we can't figure out?"

"I think we've learned a lesson or three since then." He brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. "I know I've learned, and so did Shanan. We were children during Sigurd's battles. Celice's generation... your generation... learned faster than we did, because of our own mistakes. And our children- and Prince Fenian and Princess Oona and the rest of them- have _all_ our mistakes spread out in front of them and can learn from it."

"There's mistakes and there's _mistakes_."

Her words, blurred by sleep, made no literal sense, but Oifey felt the truth of them in his heart.

"There's mistakes you don't learn from, because you're _dead_. And knowing our kids won't make that exact mistake doesn't help me feel any better about it."

She was right, of course. Wrong, perhaps, in the abstract sense... but absolutely right on the particulars.

"We've hardly even begun to work at this problem, Fee. Unless the Light Inheritor declares himself tomorrow, we have time. Besides, maybe our friends in Agustria will lend us a hand."

"Friends," repeated Fee, and through the haze of sleep, Oifey could hear the skepticism in that word.

**To Be Continued...**

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><p>So, what we learned from this chapter is...<p>

1) Jamka died without issue back during Sigurd!War and Celice has Verdane under his direct rule, for whatever that's worth.

2) Shanan's still around.

3) The shiny authority of Emperor Celice has real-world limitations.

4) Bad blood between Thracia and Agustria. Gee, Leaf is married to Sara, so I wonder what happened _there_? We find out next chapter.


	3. Family

**At The Blood's Perimeter**

I do not own _Fire Emblem_ or any of its characters.

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><p><em>Chapter Three: Family<em>

_Nodion, Gran Year 801_

Nanna tapped her foot and shifted in her chair as her attendants made her up for the sake of the unexpected emissaries from the Thracian court. She could count on her fingers the number of times that Leaf had sent such a party to her capital, instead of merely having the Thracian ambassador in Bahara pass letters to his Agustrian counterpart. A personal visit from Leaf's agent meant something of great magnitude- a treaty, a wedding, the birth of a child... a death.

"They're not in mourning, Your Majesty. It can't be terrible news," said one attendant as she placed a jeweled aigret into Nanna's hair.

"That's true. I've been worrying about the health of Leaf's little daughter, but perhaps we're to receive some glad news."

The birth of another child, perhaps a male heir to Thracia? A wedding? Leaf's niece was already twenty, and rumored to be beautiful. Still, she hadn't heard any of the usual rumors- not a whisper of Queen Sara expecting a child, not the slightest gossip about Princess Oona having suitors. Something in Nanna's heart told her that this sudden visit from a squad of dragon knights meant nothing good, and she wished that Aless were someplace closer at hand than Silvail.

Nanna took her place on the dais beneath crimson velvet and tassels of ermine, but apprehensive thoughts continued to strike at her like a cold pattern of rain. Distracted by fears of _what _this visit might mean for her, Nanna was not prepared in the least for the sight of the half-brother she so rarely encountered.

"Fenian! Why didn't you announce yourself?"

"I felt that presenting myself as the voice of the King of Thracia should be enough of an introduction... Your Majesty."

Nanna felt her fingers curve around the gilded armrests of the throne. It could not have been a worse opener to the conversation; the Thracians might take her statement to mean that being a blood relative of the queen mattered more by Agustrian standards than being King Leaf's official delegate.

She stared for a moment into the boy's startling dark eyes. In the torchlight, the brown irises almost had a reddish cast.

"Of course, Prince Fenian. I simply meant that I would have made some different arrangements for your stay here had I known a member of the royal house to be in the party."

Fenian accepted this explanation with a silent nod.

"Your Majesty, the message I bring is for you only."

Not a birth announcement, then. Or an engagement, or any other happy news.

"We can speak in private," she replied with a smile meant to reassure him of her good intentions.

It didn't escape Nanna that the Thracian prince had said nothing that implied the message was equally meant for Agustria's king.

-x-

A new inheritor of the light. War.

Nanna didn't know what to make of it, or even what she _ought_ to make of it.

"What does L... what does King Leaf expect from me as a response to this prophecy?"

Fenian made a low noise in his throat, almost like a stifled cough. Nanna recognized it as signal of something like... embarrassment? Yes. Embarrassment.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid that I've represented myself falsely to you. I didn't travel to Nodion under King Leaf's orders. Duke Oifey asked this of me as a personal favor."

"Then Thracia did not intend to... to warn Agustria of this possible uprising near our borders."

"In truth, Your Majesty, we have not yet shared this news with the Emperor, either. I was instructed to visit Chalphy and only Chalphy."

"And what does King Leaf intend by any of this?"

"That would hardly be for _me _to say."

For some reason, the self-deprecation that underlined his response made Nanna feel like she'd been met by the conversational equivalent of the back of his hand.

"I see why you're the one entrusted with diplomatic missions, Prince Fenian." She turned away from him and began to study a portrait of her sons, painted when they were small children. Fenian, no older than her boys, really couldn't be permitted to go on his way without giving her something more than he'd yet offered. "Now, if I may, I have some questions for you."

"Certainly, Your Majesty."

She asked after Leaf and his queen and received Fenian's assurances that both remained well.

"And their daughter, your princess?"

"The health of Princess Reannon is greatly improved, and she studies magic under the tutelage of the great Wind Sage. We still cherish the hope that one day she will be able to take up Lady Ethlin's treasured sword and ride forth to be among her people."

Whatever slant Fenian put on his statement, it confirmed the rumors- Leaf's only child was a frail little thing, unfit for training with a lance or a sword, unable even to ride. Nanna glanced again at the portrait of her sons, golden-haired and rosy of cheek, miniature swords in their chubby fists.

Fenian hadn't finished.

"Until that day arrives, my sister and I have sworn that we will carry both halves of Thracia for her. The north and the south, the earth and the heavens. That is our part of protecting the kingdom of which Lord Cuan dreamed and that King Leaf made reality."

Nanna turned slowly back toward him. Fenian's dispassionate voice had taken on an entirely different quality when delivering the statement of purpose that she hadn't asked him to give.

"That's beautiful, Fenian."

"That is our family, Your Majesty."

_And you are not part of it. _

Another backhanded blow composed of simple words, delivered without a trace of anger. Nanna decided she'd had enough questions for the night.

**To Be Continued...**

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><p>So. Nanna, despite all the puppy love she had going on with Leaf during <em>Thracia 776<em>, up and married her angsty cousin Aless after the war, and went with him and Delmud to go conquer Agustria instead of returning to Thracia with Leaf. This campaign succeeded (and it's why the new capital is Nodion and not Agusty) but it left some, er, lingering problems with relations at the other end of the continent.

Rather large problems, from the sound of it.


End file.
